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The Ultimate Commitment
Text: Matthew 16:13-28
- Introduction
- A therapeutic culture: "I feel this…" "I need that…" Self-esteem, focus on oneself, but never a word about another. There is no commitment!
- There is an overall lack of commitment in our society and culture today. Many are not committed in our marriages; many are not committed to their children; many are not committed to make a difference in their community and society; many are not committed to the elderly; and many of these are not committed in church!
- If we are not committed in the small things, how can we ever expect to be committed in the ultimate things?
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for standing against the Third Reich in Nazi Germany in 1945. He knew in order to be faithful to Jesus, he would have to follow Jesus to his death. He said: "When Jesus bids a man to "follow him"- -he calls him to die!"
- This passage is about the Ultimate Commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord! As Calvin says about true self-denial: "To deny ourselves means that we substitute within ourselves self-hatred in place of self-love." When Jesus calls us to commit ourselves to him- -it is a call to be selfless and committed to die!
- The Ultimate King (16-20)
- Peter's Confession: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
- Regardless of what other men thought about Jesus, Peter declares on behalf of the other disciples that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Peter saw all that Jesus did in his ministry: healing, exorcism, raising of the dead, release of the captives, etc. Peter claims that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, or Christ of Israel! The Messiah, who would bring ultimate salvation and deliverance from all of Israel's enemies! This was revealed to Peter by divine revelation, as it still is today when a person believes in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.
- Jesus says "upon this rock" he would build his church! Not Peter as an individual, but Peter as the representative of the other disciples. Not as our Roman Catholic friends understand this passage, but as the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:20, that the church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
- The Ultimate Death (21)
- Turning Point in Matthew's Gospel: Attention toward Jerusalem.
- The Kingdom through suffering and death?
- Many expected Messiah to come victoriously into Jerusalem, riding on a white horse, destroying the Romans and all the suppressive powers of the Gentiles. However, Jesus clarifies their thinking. This will come- - but later. Here, he identifies himself with the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 53 of Isaiah's gospel. The victorious Christ must first undergo the affliction of the Suffering Servant of God.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
- The Ultimate Surprise (22-23)
- Peter's Rebuke- In one way Peter does not know to what he has committed himself.
- Peter has already committed three years of his life to the Christ. He has already left everything to follow Christ. Christ asks him to go one step further.
Ex. Peter asking Jesus about forgiveness- - Jesus redefines forgiveness for Peter - he now redefines death and commitment and discipleship to Jesus!
- Peter is a scandalon, or stumbling block to Jesus' Kingdom-Mission.
- The Ultimate Commitment (24)
- Deny yourself…
- The denial so radical, it even extends to one's own family: Mt. 10:24ff.
- To deny oneself means refusing to follow any natural inclination, however innocent, that runs contrary to Christ's path for us. It is something much for intense and deeper than going without sugar or chocolate during Lent, as some of our friends do!
- It is a denial so radical that it might just not make a bit of sense to you! To put it another way, true denial may be the kind of thing we would say about: "I don't think the LORD would want us to do such and such, that wouldn't be wise, would it?"
- Take up your cross…
- A "willingness" to bear the cross- -not merely doing something dutifully, but joyfully and willingly is much more difficult!
- We have so over-spiritualized this verse that we forget it speaks of the possibility of truly following Jesus to our deaths. It does not mean that we should go a little time without an automatic dishwasher, a Sunday without seeing our favorite sports entertainment, or having to settle for less than what the Jones's can afford! This means true death! We live in a comfortable, convenient culture. I wonder if we truly ask ourselves if we would be willing to die for Christ's sake!
- Ex. Think about yourself on an expedition. You are with several others traveling by foot and suddenly the leader says, we are going to thus and thus a place. It is there they will kill me, then they will possibly kill you. This is the context of Jesus' statement and the overwhelming possibility that will be faced by the disciples. It is something like this:
"Oh, and when we go to Jerusalem, I am not going to ride in on a white horse as the conquering Messiah, overthrowing the Romans, I will be judged by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes (all those in the community who hold social and political clout). Then I will be humiliated, stripped naked, spit upon, mocked, nailed naked to a Roman cross, where I will hang as your leader stinky and bloody before all the gazes of the people…this you must prepare yourselves for as well!"
- …and follow me!
- With the above in mind, now you see why "follow me" was more than an evangelistic cry for someone to come forward and "accept Christ as Savior". It was Jesus bidding a man to come and die with him!
- The Ultimate Paradox (25-26)
- Saving, preserving, keeping, one's life will cause one to lose it.
- But…life is too short! I've got to make the best of this thing, because I am only going to get one chance at it!
- Only through death can true life come!
- Think about it this way: to waste your life on your self is not to see that this life is not your ultimate destination. Life on the moat, rather than in the castle; life on the exit ramp, rather than on the highway; life on the front porch, rather than in the house with the family, etc.
- Only through the death of the Christ can true life come to his disciples.
- The imitation of Christ by all of his disciples.
- The Ultimate Kingdom (27-28)
- Kingdom will only come through the King's death!
- Christ's Kingdom through Christ's death- - this Kingdom his disciples saw when Christ was raised from the dead, ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit to his people! Jesus' final words of promise were that he was with them always, Go and make disciples- - disciples that would understand the ultimate commitment to Jesus- - and gather his people from all the nations through the proclamation of the good news that Jesus was raised to life!
- Peter's ultimate denial- - Christ's ultimate forgiveness and ultimate restoration of Peter in John 20.
- As the Mosaic sacrifices pointed forward to the ultimate death of Christ, the once and for all life that was denied, and laid down for our sins and transgressions! So was Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac "by faith" necessary in order to bring in the Kingdom. For by faith, he knew that the Kingdom must come through death, and believed God could raise the dead.
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed -- God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
22 And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
- Conclusion:
Christ's death and suffering is a pattern for our lives as Christians. As the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 6, we have died with Christ, as well as been raised with him. We live under a new Master, we must die to our sins and our own self-wills. We must continue to allow the Spirit to conform us to Christ-likeness in our pattern of suffering.
The pattern of the Christian life is one of suffering and death. There is joy for the journey, but it is indeed a journey fraught with difficulties of which, and for which we need to be constantly aware, as well as prepared!
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